Orbital To Pull Out of Rocketplane Kistler’s COTS Team

By Brian Berger, Space News |
September 25, 2006 12:34pm ET

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WASHINGTON --- Rocketplane
Kistler's effort to restart development of the K-1 reusable rocket and conduct
for NASA a series of International Space Station re-supply demonstration
flights has been dealt a setback with the loss of strategic partner Orbital
Sciences Corp. and the approximately $10 million the Dulles, Va.-based company
had pledged to bring to the table.

NASA picked Oklahoma
City-based Rocketplane Kistler and El Segundo, Calif.-based Space Exploration
Technologies (SpaceX) in mid-August from a field of six finalists to share $500
million in funding the space agency plans to spend on the Commercial Orbital
Transportation Services (COTS) demonstration program through 2011.

Rocketplane Kistler has
pledged to match NASA's $207 million investment in the K-1 roughly two-for-one
with outside capital. Upon winning the COTS contract, Rocketplane Kistler
announced that Orbital Sciences Corp. was signing on as a strategic partner to
manage the K-1 development and contribute to Kistler's financing efforts with a
$10 million investment.

But that plan has fallen
through, according to Orbital Sciences.

"We haven't been able to
agree on all the elements of the business plan so we will not be part of the
program going forward," Orbital Sciences spokesman Barron Beneski said Sept.
25. "And of course as a result we will not be investing the $10 million."